Fluid flow control valves

ABSTRACT

This disclosure relates to a valving system for controlling the flow of fluids, particularly vapors and gases, through ports of relatively large area with relatively low pressure drops. The type of valve disclosed I call a &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;curtain valve&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;; it is comprised of an impervious flexible sheet (the curtain) movably installed to cover and uncover an opening or port on the upstream side so that the curtain seals around the edges of the port under the pressure differential across the port. To prevent deflection of the central part of the flexible sheet through the port opening a grid coextensive in area with the port opening may be provided on the downstream side, the bars of the grid being sufficient in number and spacing to support the flexible sheet or curtain which covers (or throttles) the port area. This disclosure relates particularly to such valving in a system of an array of several ports, the particular example selected to illustrate the invention being valving for controlling the flow of fluids in a typical adsorption system with three adsorbers.

United States Patent 1191 1111 3,815,630

Barnebey [4 June 11, 1974 4] FLUID FLOW CONTROL VALVES ling the flow of fluids, particularly vapors and gases, [76] Inventor: Herbert L Bamebey, 835 N through ports of relatively large area with relatively Cassady) Columbus Ohio 43216 low pressure drops, The type of valve dlsclosed I call a curtam valve 1t 1s compnsed of an 1mperv1ous flexi- Filedi 1973 ble sheet (the curtain) movably installed to cover and uncover an opening or port on the upstream side so [2]] Appl' 3577l4 that the curtain seals around the edges of the port Related Application Data under the pressure differential across the port. To pre- [63] Continuation-impart of s r, N 213,1 4, Jan, 7, vent deflection of the central part of the flexible sheet 1972, Pat. No. 3,773,077. through the port opening a grid coextensive in area with the port opening may be providedon the down- [52] US. Cl. 137/594, 25l/DIG. 2 stream side, the bars of the grid being sufficient in [51] Int. Cl. F16k 3/02, Fl6k 27/04 number and spacing to. support the flexible sheet or [58] Field of Search 137/594; 251/DlG. 2 curtain which covers (or throttles) the port area. This disclosure relates particularly to such valving in a sys- [56] References Cited tem of an array of several ports, the particular exam- UNITED STATES PATENTS ple selected to illustrate the invention being valving 99l,808 5/1911 Tiesse 137/594 x controlling the flow of fluids in a typical adsmp' tion system with three adsorbers.

Primary Examiner-Arnold Rosenthal Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Wm. Henry Venable [57] ABSTRACT This disclosure relates to a valving system for control- 3 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJUH 1 l 1974 SHEET 30? 4 ings on'the upstream side thereof a 1 FLUID FLOW CONTROI. VALVES CROSS REFERENCE TO A RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation-in-part of my pending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 2l8,l l4 filed on Jan.

- I7, 1972, now US. Pat. No. 3,773,077, of the same title, relating to the embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 13 through 20 thereof and which are identical with FIGS. 1 through 8, respectively, of this application. In addition I disclose herein a variation of the valve array construction illustrated by new FIGS. 9, l and 11.

SUMMARY OFTI-IE INVENTION My invention relates to a valving system for controlling relatively low pressure, large volume fluid flow. In the embodiment particularly illustrated and described below, the fluids are vapors or gases in a typical adsorption system with three adsorbers. The type of valve embodied in this system has the advantage of requiring relatively small space for installation and simplicity of operation in a multiple-port valve array. I call it a curtain valve; in brief, it is comprised'of a flexible impervious sheet (the curtain) movably installed to cover and uncover, or to throttle, a single port or various members of an array of ports, upstream of the port in the direction of fluid flow, so as to seal around the edges of the ports underthe pressure differential between the upstream anddownstream sides thereof. To prevent deflection of the central portion of the impervious sheet through the ports, a grid coextensive in area with the port may be provided in the downstream side of the impervious sheet, the bars of the grid being sufficient in numberand spacing to' support the flexible sheet or curtain which covers or throttles the port area. When thus supported by a grid, the impervious flexible sheet or curtain may be made of relatively thin and light material, although the port which it covers has a very large area. 1

The curtain valve array particularly disclosed and claimed herein is designed for controlling the flow of gases through multiple adsorber systems. It is characterized 'byhaving two sets of port openings, each in a common plane and each having a series of pairs of openings. 0n one side of each set of port openings, two parallel longitudinal ducts are provided, there being four such longitudinal ducts in all. On the opposite side of each set of port openings, are a series of transverse ducts, each transverse duct passing a pair of valve openings. Adjacent the gridwork of all the port opencurtain type valve is provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS The annexed drawings illustrate an embodiment of my invention in a twelve-port valve array.

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram for gas flow through a typical three-adsorber system illustrating a twelve-port valve requirement.

FIGS. 2 through 8 illustrate a four duct, twelve-port valve array chamber for a system such as shown in FIG. 1, using curtain type valves of my invention. FIG. 2 is an isometric view of this valve housing from the outside. FIGS. 3 and 4 are longitudinal sections through the chamber of FIG. 2 and FIG. 5 is a typical transverse section through this housing. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the program for opening and closing the valves. FIG. 7 is a view of the curtain-and-reel construction in one of the four ducts with the reels unrolled sufficiently to show the curtain area. FIG. 8 is a diagram of the curtain-and-reel device of FIG. 7 with the curtain in four different positions. FIGS. 9, l0 and I1 illustrate a variation of the construction shown in FIGS. 3, 4, and 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The versatility of my curtain valve construction for a complex array of valve ports in a unitary housing is evident from the following explanation of a system adapted to control the flow of gas and vapors in a threeadsorber installation, illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 8 inclusive.

The flow diagram for a typical adsorption installation is shown in FIG. 1. Such systems are'well known to those skilled in the art, and the following description is mainly concerned with the valving for the desired flow sequence. In this example, the three adsorbers are provided to remove residual components, such as a solvent vapor, from a gas such as air. The adsorbers 36a, 36b and 360 are packed with a suitable adsorbent, such as granular activated carbon, through which the solvent laden air is passed until the adsorbent is saturated with the adsorber vapor. Then low pressure steam is passed through each adsorber to remove the solvent and regenerate the adsorbent for a successive gas treatment. The regeneration of the adsorbers is performed in the respective adsorbers 36a, 36b and36c insequence at spaced time intervals, the time for regeneration .being much shorter than the time for adsorption.

There are thus required four inlet and outlet ducts, two for the air flow and two for the flow of low pressure steam. In the pair of .air flow the inlet duct is item 37 and the outlet duct is item 38 on the drawings; in the pair for low pressure steam the inlet duct is item 39 and the outlet duct is item 40. Air from the inlet duct 37 is channeled into the bottoms of adsorbers 37a, 37b or 370 by valves 41, 42 and 43 respectively, and after passing through the adsorbers the air discharged at the top is channeled to outlet duct 38 by valves 44, 45 and 46 respectively. Similarly, steam to regenerate the adsorbers is channeled from the steam inlet duct 39 into the bottoms of the adsorbers by valves 47, 48 and 49 respectively, and dischargedfrom thetops of the adsorbers to outlet duct 40 through valves 50, 51 and 52 The array of valves and ducts embodying my invention is assembled in a unitary valve housing 10d shown in-FIG. 2. The ends of the conduits from the valve housing 10a to the bottoms of the adsorbers 36a, 36b and 360 are marked with the letters U, V, and W, respectively. in the figures, and the ends of the conduits to the valve housing from the tops of the adsorbers are marked X, Y and Z to correlate FIGS. 2, 3, 4, and 9, l0 and II with FIG. I.

The interior construction of one embodiment of the twelve valve array housing (seen externally in FIG. 2) is shown in FIGS. 3, 4 and Sin which FIG. 3 is a longitudinal section through the air ducts 37 and 38, FIG. 4 is a longitudinal section through the steam ducts 39 and 40, and FIG. 5 is a typical transverse section through all four ducts at approximately the center of a set of four valve ports, the housing having three such sets to provide the 12 valve ports indicated in the flow diagram of FIG. 1. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the three air inlet valve openings are opened and closed selectively by a'single movable curtain 53 in the duct 37. The three air outlet valves are opened and closed by three separate curtains 14a, which may be of the type disclosed in Myers US. Pat. No. 2,349,368, FIGS. 1 and 2. Each of these openings is provided with curtainsupporting grid bars 13 and the curtains are movably mounted on the upstream sides of the openings, as explained in the brief summary of my invention.

Similarly,- the three steam inlet valves shown in FIGS. 4 and 10 are opened and closed by a single movable curtain 54 in duct 39 and the three steam outlet valves are separate curtain valves 14a.

The valve housing, 10d in FIGS. 3, 4, and 5 and We in FIGS. 9, l and 11, is longitudinally divided into two parts by longitudinal partition 58. On eachside of the partition 58 is a set of six valve openings in a common plane, arrayed'as three pairs of openings in series. As seen in thedrawings, from top to bottom the series of pairs of openings on one side has the. pair of ports 41 and 47 at the top, the pair of ports 42 and 48 at the center, and the pair of .ports 43 and 49 at the bottom. This array is shown on the lefthand side of partition 58 in FIGS. 3, 4 and and on the right hand side of that partition in FIGS .9, l0 and 11:. On the opposite side of the partition 58. the. array of six ports has the pair of ports 44 and 50 at the top,-45 and 51 at the center, and 46 and 52 at the bottom.

In the drawing figures, the direction of fluid flow is indicated by arrows. As seen therein, this is from right to left, the righthand side of theports being the upstream side and the. left hand side being downstream.

The longitudinal air and steam inlet ducts 37 and 39 areon the upstream side of the port series 41, 42, 43 and47, 48,49 respectively. These ducts are separated bya longitudinal partition 59 betweenthese port series, which extends from the center of partition 58 to the upstream face of the port array in FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 and from the upstream face of the'port array to the righthand outside wall of housing We in FIGS. 9, 10 and 11.

The longitudinal air and steam outlet ducts 38 and 40 are on the downstream side of port series 44, 45, 46 and 40, 51 and 52"respectively; These ducts are separated by a longitudinal partition 60 between these port series, extending from thecenter of partition 58 to the downstream face of the port arrays in FIGS. 3,4, and 5 and from the downstream face of the port array to the left hand outside wall in FIGS. 9, 10 and 11.

On the side of theport arrays opposite to the longitudinal ducts 37, 38, 39 and 40, the valve housing is constructed with two series of three transverse ducts, each, one series being on the downstream side ofthe array of ports 41, 42, 43, 47, 48, 49 and the other series being on the upstream side of ports 44, 45, 46, 50, 51 and 52. These transverse ducts are separated at the top and bottom by horizontal partition walls 61, parallel to the upper and lower ends, respectively, of pairs of port I openings 41 and 41, 42 and 48,43 and 49, 44 and so,

45 and '51, and 46 and-52. Thus the transverse ducts serve to connect these pairsof valve ports to the conduits U, V, W, X, Y and 2, respectively, which connect the three adsorbers to the valve array.

In the embodiment illustrated by FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 these transverse ducts are adjacent opposite outside walls of the housing 10d and the horizontal partitions 61 extend from the face of the port arrays to those walls. In the embodiment illustrated by FIGS. 9, 10 and l 1 these transverse ducts are adjacent opposite sides of the central vertical partition 58 of the housing We and the horizontal partitions 61 extend between the partition 58 and the face of the port arrays. The two embodiments differ in that in the first, the longitudinal ducts are adjacent opposite sides of they longitudinal partition at the center of the housing; in the second, the transverse ducts are adjacent opposite sides thereof.

The conduits U, V, W, X,'Y and Z are illustrated in FIGS. 2 through 5 as connected to the housing in opposite sides thereof at about the center'of the transverse ducts, whereas in FIGS. 9, 10 and 11 these ducts are connected to the housings at one end thereof. This was done primarily for clarity of illustration and it is to be understood that the ducts may be connected to the ends of the transversed ducts, either at the same side or on opposite sides, in either embodiment.

The curtain S3 isa flexible sheet of width wider than the port openings and a length slightly longer than the length of the openings, attached to continuous tapes 18a wound on reels.20b adjacent opposite ends of the duct 37. By rotating these reels, the curtain 53 may. be placed to cover any one of the threeport openings 41, 42 and 43, or to uncover all three, as indicated'more particularly in FIG. 8. The curtain 54 is a flexible sheet attached at each end to reels 200 located adjacent the ends of steam inlet duct 39 this sheet being discontinuous for a length approximating the length of asingle port opening, and being connected acrossthis length by spaced tapes 18b. By rotating the reels 200 all three ports 47, 48 and 49 may be covered by the flexible sheet 54, or any one may be selectively uncovered by placing the discontinuity in the sheet tbri dged by the tapes 18b) adjacent any desired port opening. Thus the curtains in air inlet duct 37 and in steam inlet duct 39 exemplify a reversal of parts of the same construction; in one, the curtain is one-port in length whereas in the other the opening through the curtain is one-port in length. This construction may be characterized as the sliding-curtain type, in contrast with the six valve curtains 14a which are rolled" to cover or uncover the valve openings. It was selected for disclosure in, this particular 12-port array to illustrate an additional constood that the roller type can be readily adapted to this application although that adaptation is not specifically described herein.

The selection of separate curtain valves 14a for each of the six port openings conducting the outlet of air and steam to ducts 37 and 39, instead of the single movable curtain type described-above, is because the ducts 37 and 39 are on the downstream sides of the port openings whereas the curtain type valve must be on the upstream sides of the ports and grid bars. In the valve array as seen in FIGS. 3, 4, 9 and 10, each of these six outlet ports 44, 45, 46, 50, 51 and 52 face isolated compartments (i.e., the transverse ducts) of the housing on the upstream side and a continuous curtain would have to pass through the walls of these compartments, requiring slots through the top and bottom walls 61. This is possible, and some sort of seals can of course be provided at the slots to minimize leakage therethrough, but I prefer to use separate curtains entirely contained within the transverse ducts and avoid slots between compartments.

The operation of the reels to move the curtains in the housing d, for the desired fluid flow through the adsorbers 36a, 36b and 360 in a predetermined sequence, would follow the timing generally indicated in FIG. 6. In this figure the cycle for each adsorber is indicated by a circle, the solid line portion of which represents the time that the adsorber is on stream (air passing therethrough via ducts 37 and 38), and the dash line portion of which represents the time the adsorber is being regenerated (steam passing therethrough via ducts 39 and 40). The outside circle 55 shows the cycle for adsorber 36a; the middle circle 56 shows the cycle for adsorber 36b, and the inside circle 57 shows the cycle for adsorber 36c. The actual time depends, of course, on the amount of adsorbent in each adsorber, the rate of air and steam flow therethrough, and the amount of the component in the air stream to be adsorbed. FIG. 18 illustrates the cycles where the regeneration time, indicated by the dotted line portion of the circles, is from l/6 to A of the adsorption time, a range generally typical of commercial practice. The cycles for the three adsorbers are shown programmed in FIG. 6 in a phased relation such that the adsorbers are regenerated separately one after the other, at approximately equally spaced time intervals, all three adsorbers being on stream approximately the other half of the time. The control instrumentation for operating the motors driving the valve curtain reels according to this program illustrated in FIG. 6 is not shown or described in this disclosure, such instrumentation beingwellknown to control engineers, but it is evident from the foregoing description of the 12-valve array that the construction lends itself to automatic, programmed control in predetermined sequence such as illustrated in FIG. 6.

The material selected for the impervious flexible sheet curtains herein disclosed may be any material suitable for the particular intended application. For the l2-port array controlling three adsorbers, a tough plastic made to withstand temperatures such as that of low pressure steam, such as sold under the trademark MYLAR, may be used.- For relatively high temperatures, as a valve array applied to handle furnace gases, the curtain may be stainless steel. Where the fluid temperature is relatively low, an impregnated cloth curtain such as rubberized duck maybe used. The curtain material is not, of course, limited to the above three examles.

p It is further to be understood that the valve array of this invention is not limited to twelve ports in two sets of six ports each, which is the number required for three-adsorber systems only. The total number of ports, of course, is four times the number of adsorbers in the system, eg eight ports (four on each side) for a twoadsorber system, 12 for the three adsorber system, selected for illustration herein, 16 for a four adsorber system, etc. The common characteristic of any valve array embodiment of the invention disclosed herein is that there are at least two pairs of valves in series in a common plane on each side of the valve housing.

I claim:

1. A multiple-port curtain valve array for controlling the flow of fluids to the top and bottom of the adsorbers in a multiple adsorption system comprising a fluid tight housing a medial partition in said housing extending from end to end thereof, substantially plane-surfaced port array parallel to said medial partition on each side thereof, each said port array being comprised of pairs of gridfaced port openings in series of at least two such pairs, curtain type valves on the upstream face of said gridfaced port openings adapted to uncover and cover said openings,

a first pair of parallel, longitudinal ducts through said housing'traversing the upstream face of one of said plane-surfaced port'arrays, each of said ducts of said first pair traversing half of the paired port openings in series and containing the curtain valves for the ports traversedthereby,

second pair of parallel longitudinal ducts through said housing traversing the downstream face of the other of said plane-surfaced port arrays, each of said ducts of said second pair traversing half of the paired port openings in series in direct open communication therewith, a first series of transverse ducts in said housing connecting the downstream faces of the two port openings of each pair of the port array opposite said first pair of longitudinal ducts, second series oftransverse ducts in said housing traversing the upstream faces of the port openings of each pair of the port array opposite said second pair of longitudinal ducts, each transverse duct of said second series containing the curtain valves for the pair of ports traversed thereby, and

conduit connections in the wall of said housing toeach longitudinal duct of said first and said second pair of longitudinal ducts and to each transverse duct of said first and second series of transverse ducts.

2. A multiple port curtain valve array as set forth in claim 1 further characterized by said first and second pairs of parallel longitudinal ducts being directly adjacent to, and on opposite sides of, said medial partition and said first and second series of transverse ducts being adjacent to outside walls of said housing.

3. A multiple port curtain valve array as set forth in claim 1 further characterized by said first and second series of transverse ducts being directly adjacent to, and on opposite sides of, said medial partition and said first and second pairs of longitudinal ducts being adjacent outside walls of said housing. 

1. A multiple-port curtain valve array for controlling the flow of fluids to the top and bottom of the adsorbers in a multiple adsorption system comprising a fluid tight housing a medial partition in said housing extending from end to end thereof, a substantially plane-surfaced port array parallel to said medial partition on each side thereof, each said port array being comprised of pairs of grid-faced port openings in series of at least two such pairs, curtain type valves on the upstream face of said grid-faced port openings adapted to uncover and cover said openings, a first pair of parallel, longitudinal ducts through said housing traversing the upstream face of one of said planesurfaced port arrays, each of said ducts of said first pair traversing half of the paired port openings in series and containing the curtain valves for the ports traversed thereby, a second pair of parallel longitudinal ducts through said housing traversing the downstream face of the other of said plane-surfaced port arrays, each of said ducts of said second pair traversing half of the paired port openings in series in direct open communication therewith, a first series of transverse ducts in said housing connecting the downstream faces of tHe two port openings of each pair of the port array opposite said first pair of longitudinal ducts, a second series of transverse ducts in said housing traversing the upstream faces of the port openings of each pair of the port array opposite said second pair of longitudinal ducts, each transverse duct of said second series containing the curtain valves for the pair of ports traversed thereby, and conduit connections in the wall of said housing to each longitudinal duct of said first and said second pair of longitudinal ducts and to each transverse duct of said first and second series of transverse ducts.
 2. A multiple port curtain valve array as set forth in claim 1 further characterized by said first and second pairs of parallel longitudinal ducts being directly adjacent to, and on opposite sides of, said medial partition and said first and second series of transverse ducts being adjacent to outside walls of said housing.
 3. A multiple port curtain valve array as set forth in claim 1 further characterized by said first and second series of transverse ducts being directly adjacent to, and on opposite sides of, said medial partition and said first and second pairs of longitudinal ducts being adjacent outside walls of said housing. 